Deák, Ferencz°

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DEÁK, FERENCZ°

DEÁK, FERENCZ ° (1803–1876), Hungarian lawyer and liberal nationalist politician; minister of justice in the revolutionary government of 1848. In 1839 Deák opposed a bill prohibiting Jews from acquiring certain classes of immovable property from the nobility. In 1867, when he was active in framing the constitution, he advocated legal emancipation for the Jews. After the schism in Hungarian Jewry between the Reform and Orthodox in 1869, Deák supported the latter in their demand for a separate organization, regarding it as a matter of freedom of conscience.

bibliography:

A. Csengery, Franz Deák (Ger., 1877); Gy. Szekfű, Három nemzedék és ami utána következik (19212), 213–9; I. Csetényi, in: Emlékkönyv Dr. Hevesi Simon… (1934), 85–89.